Showing posts with label rancher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rancher. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Writing Character Phobias…Or Not … by Delsora Lowe

Phobia – Oxford Dictionary – an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something, triggered by specific or general events or items.

My phobias are snakes and spiders and heights, but since they are my phobias, I don’t want to even think about them, much less write about them.

All I can say is I had traumatic encounters with the first two when I lived overseas as a child in the land of yucky things that caused me great anxiety. I don’t think of them as irrational fears, since the exposure to the first two could have been not only dangerous, but deadly. The third, a fear of heights, was a learned phobia from my mom who flipped out any time we were near heights. After many decades of life, I am slowly…almost…conquering that phobia.

Grandson conquering a Maine mountain

So, I still stay away from edges situated along great heights, but I can now slowly inch closer. And I still cover my eyes when I see photos of snakes and spiders, and avoid both, at all costs, in real life. For example, when I worked in alumni relations at an environmental college, I co-edited the alumni magazine. Part of that duty was editing the entire issue. Undoubtedly, there was always at least one photo in the issue that had a snake in it, as the guy who was the managing editor and put together the magazine loved snakes. In one issue, there was a two-page spread with such a photo. I asked my intern, now a career biologist in Africa (who is NOT afraid of snakes,) to edit that page and then flip it to the next page on my computer, so I could open my eyes. We still keep in touch via FB, and he still teases me about that. Luckily, he now studies birds and I can look at his FB page.

Jonah holding a Blue-breasted Bee-eater in Africa

As for my characters… I like to think I give them things, emotions or responses, that cause them discomfort. But I don’t believe I have ever given them an actual phobia. Their fears / issues are what many people have similar reactions to and can be considered rational or normal.

For example, falling in love can only cause hurt and heartache. These reactions may be the result from past life experiences or insecurities. So, getting to know our character’s past, off the page, before we write them in their present situation is important. One such hurt could be how our characters process and move forward after a bad break-up.

In Holiday Hitchhiker, my most recent book, my heroine, an only child, knows she has disappointed her parents by moving away to go to school to earn a degree in childhood education. They wanted her to go into the family business and run the small town mercantile. Her anxiety comes from desiring her own career dreams at the expense of disappointing her parents.

Strangely, as I write this post, I realize I gave my hero the same anxiety about wanting to carve his own path. He feels guilty that he isn’t home helping run the ranch and is instead working his life’s dream to be a conservation officer. In order to do what he wants, he felt it necessary to also move away to pursue his dream.

The two strangers, stuck together, first in a vehicle and later a log cabin, during a days-long blizzard, end up bonding over their shared experience of feeling as though they disappointed their families. Although one is an only child and feels the burden of her parent’s dream. The other is the youngest of six, and chose a career away from the ranch, in order to be his own person. His angst stems from his mom passing away when he was so young. As a result, he felt abandoned by everyone in his family. His mom doted on him. And his dad and siblings, lost in their own grieving and still trying to function in school and work, seemed to forget about him.

In another book I’m currently editing for release in 2024, Rescuing the Sheriff, the heroine’s phobia is not trusting anyone, especially law enforcement, as she is hunted by her turned rogue police officer, step-brother. She is not sure if her fears are justified, but she suspects he is responsible for her mother’s death and intends to harm her. Her fear is based on evidence, but also on the belief no one will believe her, especially the stern sheriff in the small town where she is hiding.

Fear? or Phobias?

The hero in the story fears not belonging. And has set out his entire life to prove he is good enough for the family who adopted him. He doesn’t believe he deserves their love or anyone else’s. This fear is irrational, but stems from the childhood trauma of losing both his parents. He loves his adoptive family, and most likely has this fear of not belonging because his heritage is different from the rest of the family.

Neither believe they belong, and yet each finds the other. Together, with the help of his loving adoptive family, they each teach the other that they deserve to belong.

So, I wouldn’t call any of these characteristics phobias, but deep fear and feelings of self-doubt that need to be corrected, with help from another person who truly understands, as they too have experienced similar fears.

Do you have fears or phobias? How do you deal with confronting those fears?

Amazon (also in print)

                       Barnes & Noble (also in print)

                      Apple Books (also in print)

            Holiday Hitchhiker

Amazon (also in print)

Books2Read

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) were released in late fall 2022. Look for book 3 and 4 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, in 2024-25.

 Social Media Links:

Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/delsoraloweauthor/community/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

Photo Credits:
 
Conquering the Mountain: My grandson, photo taken by my son
Phobias: In My Head - Free phobias, Download Free phobias png images,
Free ClipArts on Clipart Library clipart-library.com)
Blizzard: Photo taken by Delsora Lowe
Bird: Blue-breasted Bee-eater in Africa, permisson to use from Jonah’s FB page

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Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Favorite AND Most Challenging First in Writing ... by Delsora Lowe


I have a first book ever written (2001), along with many written full manuscripts, still sitting under my bed. But my first book to be published was The Legacy of Parkers Point, released in 2016. My novella, published in an anthology (Welcome to Serenity Harbor), was part of a compilation of novellas by members of the Maine Romance Writers. As one of the project managers on this project, I learned a ton.

The excitement of publishing a first book is beyond description.


When the anthology ran its course in early 2017, and we all received back our rights, I was soon able to experience new excitement. I republished the novella as my first indie-published book. I did the soup to nuts work, same as we did on the anthology: re-editing with a professional editor, working with a cover artist and a formatter, and promoting my “first-born,” as I did the same for two more newly written novellas that would make up the series. The three books, published individually, came out as the Starlight Grille series over the months during the fall of 2017. And then the three were published as a collection with a new short story added in 2018. Scary but exciting, for sure!


The learnings from being one of the project managers on the anthology were expanded as I indie-published The Legacy of Parkers Point and the other two books in 2017. Each book I put out has its own excitement. But that first book—there are no words to describe the feeling.Following is a blog, originally published here on Romancing the Genres (and updated), about my experience as the co-manager of the anthology. The book that kicked off and catapulted me into published-author territory.

Working on an anthology is an entirely different beast. Think Beauty and the Beast. You start out with a quarrelsome, growly, domineering chunk of words that need to be tamed into one cohesive book.

Picture this: Beauty dreaming of finding her hero. Every August the Maine Romance Writers partake in a brainstorming retreat. Okay, so it’s like a huge slumber party. We arrive with sleeping bags and pillows and laptops and snacks (salty and savory) and wine. Did I mention laptops? Yes, we do work. We spend all day either brainstorming our next story in small groups, or sitting on the deck or down by the lake writing on our current work. We break every few hours to exchange writing tips, eat, or take a boat ride around the lake. Oh, and sip wine 😊

Two years ago, we sat on the deck, sated with food and talk and wine (just a little <WINK>,) with the sound of loons on the lake and the full moon arrowing a golden path across the lake and right up on the shoreline in front of us. The setting was one of those perfect end-of-summer evenings.

Our host suggested we might like to try writing an anthology. Within minutes we’d created a town, brainstormed names of the town, set a few guidelines, and we were off and running…

Or so we thought.


The reality is the work we did that night was Beauty’s fantasy. Then the Beast appeared. All the details of actually putting together an anthology. The writing was the easy part—Beauty’s fantasy. Managing a project, was the roaring and untamable Beast.


I am happy to say we did finally tame the beast, and named it Welcome to Serenity Harbor. Beauty and the Beast are now living happily ever after. But as with all good marriages or committed relationships, one must open their eyes, negotiate, persevere over the hurdles, and make a strong commitment to reach that Happily Ever After.

As one of two project managers, working with a group of six committee members and all the authors who were excited about the project, here are the things I learned: (caveat, not all anthologies revolve around a town, like ours did. Some have a theme. Some are made up of a group of authors and there are no rules around story content.)

The following are my suggestions from the experience of working on the anthology, but most of this can also relate to individual works

♥ Map out the project, and plot exactly what the project will look like.

·         Set rules, such as genre of anthology (ours was contemporary), length (we chose short novellas, 15 – 25K words).

·         Write a contract. Include costs, such as professional editor for each work, (authors absorbed that cost), due date of manuscript, anticipated release date, budget (cost of formatter, cover artist, and promotion, for which we shared cost), and production timeline.

·         Determine as a group, parameters around the theme (story bible,) such as name and details of town that all authors will set their story in, name of overall anthology, type of promotion, voting on book cover design, etc.

♥ Research

·         What anthologies are being sold now, how are they set up, etc.

·         Talk to other authors in anthologies to understand their process.

·         Find professionals, editors, formatters, cover artists, etc.

♥ Communicate

·         As a committee, agree on the process.

·         Communicate with all authors each step of the way.

·         Vote on any spending.

♥ Evaluate at the end. Our learnings included:

·         Make sure you factor in realistic expenses, such as copyediting and project manager costs up front.

·         Set deadlines and stick to them.

·         Hire a copy editor, and have one person, not an author related to the anthology, determine if the book fits the criteria and is edited properly

♥ Make it your own

·         One fun thing we did, was to insert the mention of a sheep into each story. Look at the back cover and you will see a rendering of a sheep that says “find me,” designed by one of our authors.

Although, as a group we bumbled our way through the process, for me it was an incredible experience of teamwork and learning about self-publishing. And although the Beast still growls once in a while, the Beast is also loving and tamed. And he and Beauty are living happily ever after.


Although the idea was conceived at our brainstorming retreat, the book is not a product of the Maine Romance Writers, but of a group of writers, some members from out of state, whose bond is through MRW.

Now that it has been several years since we took on this project, I can look back on the process with clarity. This project was indeed hard. One of the hardest things I’ve ever tried, starting from scratch, and learning along the way. Despite the intense undertaking, I learned so much and gained the confidence to go on and publish more books, and for that I am grateful.

 

The Rancher Needs a Wife


https://www.amazon.com/Rancher-Needs-Cowboys-Mineral-Springs-ebook/dp/B07YXB5C4W/




~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.
Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine.


Beauty – Blue Dress: https://cdn.clipart.email/15667992f55f25a3ff416a014ad7a001_beautiful-woman-girl-icons-png-free-png-and-icons-downloads_1840-2400.png


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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Everyday Heroines Who Make Life Special... by Delsora Lowe


The world is filled with heroes and heroines, many famous, but most ordinary people like you and me. Those people who plod through daily life, working jobs, taking care of families, and volunteering in their community. The unsung heroes and heroines of the world. Every now and then, one does something extraordinary enough to be called out to the world as a heroic figure
.I have many personal heroines. Some I’ve mentioned, like my aunt who was an actress, WWII pilot, as well as a journalist and a ghost hunter, to name a few of her occupations that made her interesting. But her most heroic deed, was taking her nieces under her wing, as a second mother, since she had no children of her own. Every year I sent her a Mother’s Day card. I’ve talked about her in other blogs, so know that she will always be my heroine.
My heroine, Aunt Virginia. 
     But today I’m going to talk about fictional heroines.
As writers of romance, we write about heroines and heroes every day. We share their insecurities. Show their faults. Build their redeeming qualities so that those characters around them want to share a life with them. And we show all they go through to find and believe in love.
They might not be the people who make the front page or the evening news, but they are heroines to the people they love and those who love them.

The heroines I write about are superwomen in their own worlds. No, I don’t write paranormal or fantasy. I write contemporary. My heroines are ordinary mortals, who don’t do anything more than most of us do in daily life. But my goal as a writer is to make each heroine in my stories, someone readers can relate to. That someone who will mirror the heroine (or hero) within each reader.

Not only do I want readers to relate to my characters, but I want readers to see in themselves that the ordinary things they do in life are heroic.

Lynette Mercer, the heroine in The Rancher Needs a Wife, is an ordinary woman. She’s a widow of a war hero, a single mom, a business owner, a daughter, and a friend. I won’t give away her little acts of heroism, but I'll give you a few clues. Know they have to do with caring for her daughter and a family who has befriended her in her new town. She’s also a heroine to a woman who has drifted for the last few years and needs a friend and a job. She cares for each person she touches in different ways.

Cue in a frantic bride (hint: heroine from book one) in need of a dress and wedding planning.

Our heroine helping her new friend make a wedding dress.
            Cue in a serious and sometimes controlling (in that annoying, protective way) cowboy rancher, who, yes, is a hero.

Lynette gives poor Carter a run for his money, especially when he goes into protective mode.
           Cue in a new lingerie shop in a ranching town where ranching women are excited to have a bit of frill in their lives, and strong cowboys fear to tread.

A lingerie ladies night at Lynette’s shop, the Pink Petunia.
All of the above are the little, everyday ways my heroine helps others in her new home town.

To me, the qualities of a heroine are women who are true to themselves. As we all know, in true life and our stories, this is part of growth for every individual, and part of the story arc for each of our main characters. A heroine must face problems (and in our books, we tend to throw a lot of problems at our heroines.) The more problems, the more the story holds the attention of readers. And…the more fun we have developing a character.

As I’m writing this, I have a favorite Hallmark movie on in the background. Cooking with Love is full of character development. Watching movies and reading books, for both writers and readers, is a great way to not only be drawn into another world, but an opportunity to study what challenges can be thrown at characters to make them stronger.

In the scene of the movie where the hero goes over the heroine’s head at work, then gives a lofty and somewhat cavalier apology, the heroine responds with an absolutely-no-problem type of response. As a viewer, one has to wonder why she is buckling under, until the scene progresses, and she, without apology, proves she also has gone over his head to get him back on track. The look on the hero’s face and his actions are one of I’ve just been one-upped. And that look gives the heroine courage to find her own voice, gain respect, and become a success at work. And, of course, they fall sweetly in love.

In a scene in my new book (releasing on October 20), Lynette proves to Carter that she’s not just an overly feminine, “too pink,” kind of woman, but a woman who just might have the qualities of a rancher’s wife. Loyal. Hardworking. Cares about family and work. Knows how to show love.

Cue in plumbing is not woman’s work. Note: the hero comes to the rescue to fix a sink, but, ta-da, the heroine has everything under control.
Finding a photo or clip art of a female plumber turned into an impossible endeavor. The only females associated with plumbing were on ads for a school recruiting underrepresented women plumbers and one for a plumbing company which showed a woman sitting by a sink with her palm plastered against the side of her forehead in an “Oh, what will I do?” pose. Hence the need for heroines who can plumb.
Lynette might not be a heroine in the eyes of the world that is conditioned to look for overly heroic deeds, but she is a hero in the life of her daughter. And she will prove she can be a heroine to Carter with her words, actions, and good deeds.

Of course, as an author, all my heroine’s traits mimic those of the real-life, every day heroines who are part of my family, and my work and community life.

Who, like my aunt, is the real-life heroine in your world? And what words, actions, and good deeds does your heroine do to show her heroic side?

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~
Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine.

The Rancher Needs A Wife
preorder now or purchase on October 20

 Social Media Links: Author website:
Author FaceBook page: 
Amazon Author page:
Books2Read Author page: 

Photo Links:
Sink:
Lingerie:
Carter:
Cover: 
Seamstress:

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